Today marks the 71st Anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, the famous raid on the Japanese homelands in the opening months of the U.S. involvement in World War 2. Only four of the Raiders are still with us, and they held their last public gathering, with three of the men gathering near Eglin AFB in Florida. There are plans for the four Raiders to gather to drink one last toast together, from a bottle of 1896 Hennessey Cognac, using the goblets that has accompanied every Raider reunion since 1960.
Of the four Raiders, Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Hite is the only one remaining of those who survived being captured by the Japanese after raid.
The raid itself, doing little material damage to Japan, and all aircraft lost, served as a significant morale booster for America, and proved to the Japan that their homeland was not safe from American air power.
Most of the Raiders made it back home after the raid, with only eight being captured by the Japanese, with two died of drowning when they ditched at sea, and one other killed while bailing out of his aircraft. Of the eight that the Japanese captured, three were executed and one other died during captivity.
The Internet WW2 database has a good article on the entire raid, and well worth reading. Along with watching the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
